Handyman Leads in Daly City: License Year, Permits, Roofs

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Working legally here

Daly City's business license tax and its October 1 deadline

Daly City's code makes it unlawful to carry on a trade in the city without first getting a business license tax certificate, and Section 15.00.080 lets the building official issue a permit to a contractor who holds a CSLB license in the right classification together with a valid Daly City business license. The tax follows gross receipts: a flat base covers the first hundred thousand dollars, and 0.11 percent is added on receipts above that. A first application carries a sworn estimate of your receipts, which the city can later true up. Licenses expire every September 30 and the tax is due October 1; paying late adds 10 percent a month, capped at the full tax. With no shop in town, the code has you keep the license on you while working there.

City of Daly City, Finance & Administrative Services (opens in a new tab)

Permits

Daly City permits: the quick-permit portal, Class B roofs, the sale report

Quick permits through the online portal
The Building Division lists the jobs it can permit quickly, without full plan review: re-roofing, window and garage door replacement, siding and stucco replacement, furnace and water heater changeouts, electrical service upgrades, EV chargers, and kitchen or bathroom remodels. You apply, pay invoices and book eligible inspections in the Daly City Online Permits portal, which the city suggests opening in Microsoft Edge. Rooftop solar can be reviewed through SolarAPP+ first, and the city takes that application only if the contractor's Daly City business license is active when it is filed. Work that needs plans goes to the Building Division by email instead.
City of Daly City, Building Division (opens in a new tab)
Local amendments for re-roofs and garage-level conversions
Ordinance 1484, adopted November 24, 2025, amended the 2025 building code for Daly City. Any roof covering applied in a repair or replacement must be at least Class B fire-resistant, and so must the entire roof once more than half of it is replaced within one year. A re-roof on a house with a masonry chimney also has to add an approved spark arrestor. When unconditioned space in an unsprinklered wood-frame house becomes living space, the private garage must then meet the separation rules of Section 406.3, and any project that adds habitable space needs an illuminated address number that contrasts with its background.
Daly City Municipal Code, Chapter 15.08 (opens in a new tab)
The residential building report before a sale
Chapter 15.44 requires an owner to obtain a report of residential building record from the city before agreeing to sell or exchange a house. The report gives the authorized use and zoning, the original construction date, and the construction, conversion or alteration permits on file, and it is valid for six months. The buyer signs a receipt that goes back to the Building Division, and the city now takes these 3R report requests online. A job you permit and close out today becomes part of the record the next owner reads.
Daly City Municipal Code, Chapter 15.44 (opens in a new tab)

The homes

35,414 homes, two in three of them from 1950 to 1979

The ACS 2019-2023 estimates count 35,414 housing units in Daly City, with a median year built of 1965. The 1950s are the largest decade at 25.4 percent of units, followed by the 1970s at 20.5 percent and the 1960s at 18.0 percent, so 63.9 percent of homes went up between 1950 and 1979 and most of the stock is now 45 to 75 years old. Only 7.6 percent predates 1940. Detached houses are 48.6 percent of units and attached houses 13.7 percent, while 16.1 percent sit in buildings of 20 or more units and 1.9 percent are mobile homes. Owners occupy 60.5 percent of occupied homes. Utility gas heats 62.5 percent of them and electricity 33.9 percent.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Part by part

Daly City planning areas and what each one changes about a job

Skyline and the coastal zone
Everything west of Skyline Boulevard, plus part of Westlake North west of Eastgate Drive, is in the state Coastal Zone. Daly City's zoning overlay takes in every property within 1,000 feet of the coast, where significant construction needs Planning Commission and City Council review first. Bluff erosion forced the removal of 21 homes on Westline Drive, and the San Andreas Fault crosses the southern part of this coastal area.
Serramonte
The General Plan calls Serramonte the city's newest large subdivision, built in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and its housing the most standard in Daly City: two-story units at roughly 14 to the acre, set in strips along moderately steep hillsides. Part of the neighborhood lies in an Alquist-Priolo special study zone, and very high density apartments stand just west of Serramonte Shopping Center.
Vista Grande, north of John Daly Boulevard
The plan describes dense housing on tight streets, steep hillside construction and dead ends here, including some of the oldest homes in the city. Most are one story over a small one-car garage, and some California bungalows have no garage at all, so work out where the van will go before you arrive.
Crocker and Bayshore, east of I-280
Crocker packs small lots with little or no setback at close to 20 homes an acre, the highest density of any Daly City neighborhood, with houses of many ages and styles. Bayshore, annexed in 1963, is mostly detached houses beside the Geneva Avenue commercial corridor, and the plan notes dead-end streets there with no curb, gutter or sidewalk.
Hillside
Hillside has the widest mix of densities in the city, from about 12 units an acre to over 50 in its southeast corner, where block-long rows of four-unit buildings line several streets. Some blocks were greenhouses before they were subdivided, and the neighborhood holds The Franciscan, Daly City's largest mobile home park.

Getting around

A Daly City workday: street permits, permit-zone parking, quiet hours

I-280 splits the city: Skyline Boulevard and the coast lie west, the 1.5-mile Mission Street strip and the Top of the Hill east. Materials left in the street need a Public Works permit, unless the repair is closed up within twelve hours. A debris box supplier needs its own city permit and its name on two sides of each box. On a residential permit parking street, a commercial vehicle delivering materials to a job with a building permit is exempt from the time limit. The code bars noise heard beyond the property from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., and projects with planning approval post the work hours set in their conditions.

How hot leads work

From the first text to the homeowner's door

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After you pay you get the homeowner's name, number and address. Price and timing are between you.

Questions

Working in Daly City: what pros ask

Do I need a Daly City business license for a one-day job?

Yes. Section 5.04.030 makes it unlawful to carry on any business in the city without the license and its tax, whether or not you have a location there, and the Building Division will not issue a permit without one. If you advertise or otherwise hold yourself out as working in Daly City, the code counts that as evidence you do business there. With no shop in town, carry the license with you on the job.

Can I put any shingle the owner picks on a Daly City roof?

Only one rated at least Class B for fire resistance. Under Ordinance 1484, adopted in November 2025, every roof covering used in a repair or replacement must meet that class, and so must the whole roof once more than half of it is replaced within a year. If the house has a masonry chimney, put an approved spark arrestor in the scope, because the amendment requires one at the time of any re-roof.

Who can pull a Daly City permit if I hold no contractor's license?

The code lists three kinds of applicant. A contractor with a CSLB license in the right class and a Daly City business license; the bona fide owner of a single-family house, as an owner-builder under Business and Professions Code Section 7044; or a property management firm whose own employees do the work and carry workers' compensation. The same section says minor-work limits follow Section 7048 and that nothing in it waives state licensing.

How long does a Daly City permit application stay open?

180 calendar days. An application with no permit issued in that time expires by limitation. The building official can extend it for up to 180 days on a written request showing circumstances beyond your control, normally no more than twice. Once it has expired, you resubmit plans under whatever code is in force at that point and pay the plan review fees again.

Will the hot list text me Daly City jobs and nothing else?

No. It sends every new job in the Bay Area as it goes on sale, whatever the trade or city, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. A Westlake job and one over the county line in San Francisco both arrive as a text with the type of work, the area and a link. The link shows the job and its price before you pay; you are charged only for the jobs you take, with no subscription and no bidding. Reply STOP and the texts end.

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Where these facts come from

Checked against these public sources in October 2026. Rules and fees change: confirm license and permit requirements with the city before work starts.

Daly City wants two licenses on file before it issues you a permit

Get job leads in Daly City from today

You're on the hot list

Daly City's business license tax and its October 1 deadline

Daly City permits: the quick-permit portal, Class B roofs, the sale report

Quick permits through the online portal

Local amendments for re-roofs and garage-level conversions

The residential building report before a sale

35,414 homes, two in three of them from 1950 to 1979

Daly City planning areas and what each one changes about a job

Skyline and the coastal zone

Serramonte

Vista Grande, north of John Daly Boulevard

Crocker and Bayshore, east of I-280

Hillside